tropism
[troh-piz-uh m]
- an orientation of an organism to an external stimulus, as light, especially by growth rather than by movement.
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Origin of tropism
First recorded in 1895–1900; independent use of -tropism
-tropism
- variant of -tropy.
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Origin of -tropism
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for tropism
Contemporary Examples
Still, Cuccinelli has shown his own tropism toward the kindness of strangers.
Historical Examples
The workers, on the other hand, who have to be in and out of the nest about their business, do not have this tropism.
Natural WondersEdwin Tenney Brewster
The object of the tropism is to keep the males and females in the nest until swarming time, and then to get them out.
Natural WondersEdwin Tenney Brewster
Driesch has found that a tropism underlies the arrangement of the skeleton in the pluteus larvae of the sea-urchin.
Darwin and Modern ScienceA.C. Seward and Others
As a type of human behavior it may be explained, like the attraction of the flame for the moth, as a sort of tropism.
Introduction to the Science of SociologyRobert E. Park
This may be a tropism (stereotropism) or it may be a mere surface tension phenomenon.
The Organism as a WholeJacques Loeb
tropism
- the response of an organism, esp a plant, to an external stimulus by growth in a direction determined by the stimulus
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Word Origin
from Greek tropos a turn
-tropism
-tropy
- indicating a tendency to turn or develop in response to a certain stimulusphototropism
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Word Origin
from Greek tropos a turn
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for tropism
n.
1899, "tendency of an animal or plant to turn or move in response to a stimulus," abstracted from geotropism, ultimately from Greek tropos (see trope).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
tropism
(trō′pĭz′əm)- The turning or bending movement of a living organism or part toward or away from an external stimulus, such as light, heat, or gravity.
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-tropism
- Tropism:stereotropism.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
tropism
[trō′pĭz′əm]
- The growth or movement of a living organism or anatomical structure toward or away from an external stimulus, such as light, heat, or gravity. See also geotropism hydrotropism phototropism.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.